SC dismisses IndiGo's plea against order to shift from T 1 to T2 of IGI

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The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea of no-frill carrier IndiGo challenging a Delhi High Court order to shift its operations from Terminal-1 (T-1) of the IGI Airport here to Terminal 2.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the IndiGo Airline to shift its operations partially to T2 in 25 days.

The budget carrier had on February 19 approached the apex court against the February 13 order of the division bench of the High Court.

The larger bench of the High Court had upheld the decision of a single judge order observing that the decision of Delhi International Airport Ltd's (DIAL) to partially shift IndiGo's operations from T-1 to T-2 cannot be said to be unreasonable only because it may operate harshly against that airline.

The High Court had turned down the suggestion of IndiGo that T-1 be dedicated exclusively for its use and low-cost carrier SpiceJet be asked to move its entire operations to T-2. The bench had said this suggestion had sprung from IndiGo's own commercial considerations and was not made in the larger public good.

It had said SpiceJet was as much a business rival of IndiGo as GoAir was a competitor of these two private carriers. IndiGo may be on top of the heap if the volume of passenger traffic is seen, but this would not entitle it to claim monopoly over T-1 to the exclusion of the rest, it had added.

The decision had come on IndiGo's plea challenging its single judge order of December 20 last year, upholding DIAL's October 21, 2017 decision to partially shift the operations of Indigo, GoAir and SpiceJet from T-1 to T-2 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.